[sin_arms]

I'm just about ready to purchase a smaller cnc lathe and I'm wonder why did you buy yours? Also what don't you like about yours? Anything you would do over now that you bought one? Thanks

[cbyrd]

I have a Grizzly G0709 Manual lathe and it works wonderful. I was looking for a lathe to do lots of the same parts. I was already to get a Tormach Mill and just decided to get the Slant Pro Lathe also, My Banker loves me...

I wish it had more Z travel or a longer bed to do some of the jobs I do. I also wish it had a Tailstock that did not restrict the Z travel or was stiffer. It is also not easy to remove and put back on, one of the reasons I have not purchased it.

It could be a little faster on but it does a great job of cutting. I also wish they had a better homing switches, It is not too hard to dial it in each day but a pain if the project has an Estop or working on the project more that one day.

Turret is great. Would not buy without one. I also have Short gang tooling for drilling and tapping. Gives more Z Range.

I do lots of threading and this machine is great for that !

Can't really think of anything to do over. I could not afford a larger CNC lathe.

Hope that helps
Chris

[Spinnetti]

Well, I haven't bought yet but plan to simply because I am unaware of any other reasonable options near this price point that is not some manual lathe conversion.

[LeeWay]

I built a smaller cnc lathe a while back. It was doing the job fine, but could not be easily automated. The Tormach wasn't automated either, but I had been researching a while and knew it would not take much to make it automated.
It is a lot more machine than my small lathe and is much more accurate. It has Path Pilot as a controller, which did not carry much weight to me then, but now I know it is outstanding for a the controller. A whole different league than Mach 3 turn.
Some much so that I am replacing Mach 3 on my mill with Path Pilot too.

I would not change anything about the lathe itself. I would have taken more time to setup the lever collet closer and started aligning from the lathe pulley itself outward. I am a very satisfied customer.

[wtopace]

I was tossing around the idea of the Tormach SPL for a while, but also keeping an eye on Craigslist for used CNC lathes (real machines, not converted Grizzly's). I ended up accidentally finding a really nice 5k lb Takisawa lathe.

Tormach SPL - ~$15k new
Pros:

• PathPilot (commodity controller, cheap, replaceable, ethernet connection, LOTS of memory (/sigh, more on the Fanuc control later...)
• PathPilot again

Cons:

• Rapids???? 50 IPM? ouch
• Stepper motor accuracy - Aside from Grimsmo who claims 0.0000-0.0001" all day long, everyone else is realistic with a stepper drive and box way system. It is what it is - not bad, but not spectacular either.
• Rigidity of a lightweight machine - not sure how good / bad this is as I don't have any experience with the SPL
• No hydraulic drawtube - This can be remedied with a custom closer, but I believe the drawtube is limited to 5C, so 1-1/16" max

Takisawa TC-1 - $6500 used on Craigslist, moved it myself with the help of my family
Pros:

• Servos (650 IPM rapids, built-in positional feedback, etc...)
• MPG (jog wheel) feels really solid - probably cost a small fortune to replace though =)
• I can hold very tight tolerances once I learn to run the machine better, so far 0.001" is no problem at all, even with my complete guesses at feeds and speeds
• linear ways
• high pressure coolant
• 0.5s turret indexes
• 10HP induction motor

Cons:

• The controller (1988 in all of it's glory) - The time where "more buttons and switches" = "clearly more user friendly", a time before tabs and radio buttons existed. Some day this will fail - it will be a) very expensive to fix or b) a long project to retrofit LinuxCNC. 8k of total memory, most of which is consumed by the parameters (config for control <-> relays, etc...), offsets (all 16 of them for my 8 pos turret), diagnostics.... which leaves a whopping 3300 bytes for program memory. That is literally only 3300 characters, I do have a custom Fusion360 post that strips everything down and removes spaces. I have purchased some memory upgrade chips for the mainboard on the Fanuc 0T-B controller, but haven't gotten the guts yet to install them, knowing there is a good chance I spend the weekend manually entering 1,000 parameters and diagnostics from the on-machine input panel with the 9" CRT screen.
• 3-phase power requirement, ~$2k rotary phase converter just to power the machine.
• Very heavy and hard to move (I guess the weight could be a good thing once the machine is in it's final place)
• Short z-axis travels 12.4" (not sure of SPL)
• 8-slot turret (no VDI ports on mine, so ID/OD tooling share slots, I have designed and need to mill out some gang tooling holders for the turret though)

In my opinion, the Takisawa is worth it to me, even though I step through a time machine to 1988 every time to use it. I do run a DNC application and a modern computer to transfer code to / from the machine and Fusion360 for CAM, so the controller complaints are somewhat limited, but they are still there. Even at 25% rapids, the machine is lightning fast and puts my PCNC1100 to shame, at 100% it is downright scary. The machine is far more accurate than I am with my thrown-together CAM-generated code. If you are open to learning an old controller, it might be worth it to keep your eyes open for a nice condition commercial servo-driven lathe on the used market.

Disclaimer - These are just my personal viewpoints =)

[sin_arms]

Thanks everyone for your responses so far. I currently have an 1100 and thought a 15L would be a good mate to it. I've heard the Z travel is very limited, stepper motors and a computer controller also worries me. One thing that drives me up a wall is the $11,015 price tag, you can't buy it for that, you still have to add a guard and some sort of oiler. Even then it's not like you can cut anything with it, no way to hold a tool, no way to hold the work. That $11,000 price tag ends up being about $13k by the time you can actually use it. The way I want it I would have $22k in the machine, 2x listed price.

As far as an older controller I don't mind it, I have a Fadal VMC also so I know how those go.

I am still on the hunt for a perfect machine, I think I have a lead on one but I want more information and a quote. Thanks everyone.

[wtopace]

Thanks everyone for your responses so far. I currently have an 1100 and thought a 15L would be a good mate to it. I've heard the Z travel is very limited, stepper motors and a computer controller also worries me. One thing that drives me up a wall is the $11,015 price tag, you can't buy it for that, you still have to add a guard and some sort of oiler. Even then it's not like you can cut anything with it, no way to hold a tool, no way to hold the work. That $11,000 price tag ends up being about $13k by the time you can actually use it. The way I want it I would have $22k in the machine, 2x listed price.

As far as an older controller I don't mind it, I have a Fadal VMC also so I know how those go.

I am still on the hunt for a perfect machine, I think I have a lead on one but I want more information and a quote. Thanks everyone.

Btw - the computer controller is a huge plus for me. I really like the idea of not having to shell out huge amounts of money for a Fanuc 0T-B control board if I don't have to. Old PC parts collecting dust that can be thrown together in half an hour and plugged into the machine is great in my opinion.

Since you have a Fadal VMC already, you definitely already understand the pros and cons I alluded to above =) Pretty sure your list is almost identical.

Good luck with your hunt for the perfect machine!

[sanddrag]

Bought it for our school's manufacturing program, and it's been pretty great so far. The control interface and conversational programming is excellent, and I say that comparing it to three Haas machines in my shop. I also like the fact that you can get a collet closer on it, and the overall size and height of the machine. My Haas ST-10 is way too short for a tall person like me to comfortably use. In terms of quality of the machine, the things that matter are good, and the things that don't aren't. The door on the enclosure drops a considerable amount of coolant on the floor when you open it. I wish the homing was more repeatable. The Tormach was quite a project to assemble and put together (whereas a Haas comes Turnkey) but once we did, it's been working great. The instructions and manuals from Tormach have been pretty good for the most part.

[CalebGM]

I turned titanium on a mini grizzly mill for about 2 years, and finally saved up for a cnc.

I really knew little to nothing about CNC before it arrived, and I didn't want to chance it on a used lathe that I wouldn't be able to put to good use.

It was the right price to leave me debt free, and more than accurate enough for my purpose. A couple months in, and it's well over paid for itself.

Also, I ask Tormach a lot of stupid questions, and honestly they have been punctual and really helpful every single time. When I go to get a real mill (using an x-carve right now), I'm more than likely going to buy from them.

If It came down to it, I would buy another one in a heartbeat.

[sin_arms]

Thanks everyone for your input, I just ordered a lathe, not a 15L though. I will be posting a video of uncrating and powering on.

[LeeWay]

Don't hold us in suspense.

[sin_arms]

here is all I'm going to say, servo motors, industrial controller, twice the weight, same price....

[LeeWay]

Well that is just no fair at all.

[MichaelHenry]

New or used?

[tmarks11]

Feel free to let us know brand and details. This isn't a tormach sales floor, you are free to talk about why you feel your alternative is a good choice.

There are some small slant bed lathes on Alibaba that "sell" cheaper than the SPL15, but that is definitely taking a chance that they will actually deliver, and that the machine is actually any good at all.

I am not brave enough to gamble that way with $12-20k.

[sin_arms]

I was very reluctant to buy it but after talking with them and getting more information I feel like this is a lot better lathe for the money. Granted you can get a 15L for "$11,015" but you really can't. You need to add on an oiling system and a chuck guard or enclosure. To get the 15L fitted to where I wanted and with what I needed I was at $22k. The very minimum would be ~$14k to get a 15L so you could actually use it. I bought this lathe for gunsmithing/rifle building and I will be producing production parts on it. You guys will get to see some videos on it, I'm hoping I didn't make a mistake but I think I hit the jackpot

AutoMateCNC AM-1417 | smithy.com

[dammachines]

here is all I'm going to say, servo motors, industrial controller, twice the weight, same price....

AutoMateCNC SL280?

--Edit--
Sorry that's what I get for reading on my little phone screen. Didn't see that there was another page...

[tmarks11]

AutoMateCNC AM-1417 | smithy.com

Max length between centers of 17", max length of workpiece of 11". Will that work for gunsmithing? Guess it all depends if you are making barrels or just chambering a barrel. If the later, than I guess the 1.7" spindle bore will work. For a few thou more you could have "super-sized" your order to the SBL6...

AutoMateCNC SL6 | smithy.com\

Smithy has quite a collection of machinery now, but I would be leery about buying from them until I start reading a lot of positive reviews from owners. Smithy has been dabbling in cnc for a while, starting with conversions of their all-in-one, then carrying the Sieg KX1 and KX3, than carrying a machine that looks just like the Novakon, and now they have dozens of machines all at once. The Smithy forum here has been largely a ghost town for a long time.

[sin_arms]

Yep it will work great for smithing, I'm not contouring barrels with it so I'll be good. I may add a SL6 for running parts but for right now I think this will suite me very well. I was a little leery when I first looked at them but I talked to Kade for a while and I know the company has been around for a long time so I don't have to worry (hopefully) of them just closing their doors tomorrow with no support. Do I expect this machine to run perfect right away? No but I am on a learning curve with cnc lathes and I didn't expect the 15L to work perfect either. Tormach as some good stuff but we all know they don't send out stuff that is ready to go and trouble free.

I wouldn't ever use a 3 in 1 and I think a lot of others wouldn't either and that's why that part of the forum is pretty quiet. I would think that once they start getting more machines out it would liven up some.

[Spinnetti]

Who'da thunk... didn't see these.. this one looks comparable? TalonCNC FH30B | smithy.com